An entry in Ekşi Sözlük, which Oktay shared with our team, tells about us: They are keeping on a lot.
Yes, because we cannot explain some issues in a few sentences or paragraphs. That’s why we added the category, “In-depth,” on our website in 2018. Our chief editor, Gülin told the reason of change: “The comprehensive articles supported by case studies, in which Teyit's editors and authors examine the fake news more deeply, based on suspicious information, and include long-term research based on data are under the category, In-depth. The suspicious content we examine sometimes exceeds an analysis format and contains very different data and methods. To convey the different methods we use and to examine a few interrelated suspicious information as a whole enables us to provide a more general picture on the issue.”
Let’s elaborate on this through an example; “İstanbul’un Kadim Sorunları” (Ancient Problems of İstanbul) which we’ve published recently.
We need to talk about the complete story
The size of the title must catch your attention: We worked as a team in this article, where we need to look at the deep-rooted structural problems of Istanbul from a historical perspective. So, we applied the multi-author system. Ezgi Toprak, Öyküm Hüma Keskin and I examined the "Ancient Problems of Istanbul" in terms of water, wastes and transportation, each of which consists of four parts.
We have completed the title of "Waters" in the file, which consists of four parts, and you will read the "Waste" part in the coming days. So, it will take a while to reach the conclusion, but we have some talk.
Because, in this series, we basically tried to deal with the following: Looking at the denunciations and the increasing number of claims that appeared after the change of local government in Istanbul could mean being inefficient and shallow. Instead of this, we tried to understand the structural aspect of the issue: For example, we tried to demonstrate that the pollution in the Golden Horn dates back to 1980, and even then, climate change played a role in this pollution. For this reason, we have demonstrated the denunciations and claims from the past to the present, in order not to free the issue from its context.
According to the information provided by Erdem, the Interaction Editor of Teyit, the first article was read 1,300 times and readers read it for an average of 3 minutes, which means that the rate of leaving reading is low. The reading number in the second and third articles is almost a thousand. Other data are fixed. The reading number of the fourth article is around 300.
We have readers who meet us in our “long” articles
We know that articles in the In-depth are not read as much as analyzes; but this is not our priority. In our top 100 most read content, there is only one article in the In-depth, which explains how Chinese cuisine and coronavirus are misrelated. However, readers spend more time on In-depth articles and these articles are reference.
In fact, Qatar II, which is the second most read In-depth article in the last nine months, and the following is Tohum II. For most of our articles, we have exceeded the average of 3 minutes. In fact, the interpretation of the data is that although these articles are much longer compared to the analysis (the number of pages we deliver to our editors sometimes reaches 30), they have a unique audience of their own. The visibility of the articles in In-depth is also about us. In this age of speed, we need to consider making In-depth articles easier to consume.
Knowing that we have core readers for the articles in In-depth seems enough for us to keep on it for now. Because just as Teyit makes something with the notices from its readers, knowing that we are "read" also encourages us about the In-depth articles we prepare. Finding not momentary, but slow, digested and thoughtful responses to the issues, understanding their sources and their historicality saves us from falling into the trap of misinformation and shows us the whole picture.
At the expense of keeping on
"The Years, Months, Days" was published in 2002 and translated from Chinese into Turkish by Jaguar publishing house this year. In the book telling the story of an old man struggling to survive alone in the droughty Balou mountain range, Yan Lianke says: "If you do not believe that the moon is setting, you cannot see the stars shine." This book emerged from the land which had through the SARS-CoV2, which is remembered with the human intervention into the nature. It emerged 18 years before its root and also tells us that if we do not see, point out, understand and accept the situation we are in, we will not find a solution.
While working alone or with a team in Teyit's In-depth articles, we always try to keep this point of view in our minds and to develop our mental muscles in this direction. Even if at the expense of keeping on.
